A great way to support your local arts and dance programs!…read more Redwood City's own Ballet America (ballet school) puts on this show every year in mid December, and includes ballet students from all ages (4 and up) to participate. Though the cast is primarily students (and even some parents), they do also use instructors and a few professional dancers to fill out the main roles (e.g. sugar plum fairy, snow queen, etc). The result is magical, fun and surprisingly polished for what you'd expect from a local, low-budget production. The performance period is short: only 2 days & nights, which makes sense considering all the young children involved. We attended the final 2009 performance on Dec 11. Though typically held at the Fox theatre downtown (which is in the throes of a foreclosure saga), this year it was held at the Sequoia High School theater (Carrington Hall), a surprisingly nice venue with a colonial Spanish design, built in 1904. As usual, we enjoyed the show and came away feeling like the Holiday season had REALLY begun. Until next year!

The 2010 Nutcracker production from Ballet America was astonishing in the quality of the dancing…read more Every year this production continues to improve in the choreography and the ability of those dancing on stage. This year was no exception. The professionals that accompanied the junior company dancers and those that were our featured dancers were incredibly accomplished and a delight to watch. I heard from folks in the audience that they felt the choreography was more difficult than in the past, and the dancers were excellent! The people I heard this from do not see dance productions that often, but have come to this Nutcracker in the past. The show date tends to fall on the first Friday or Saturday of December. I hope people reading this review will hold that date for the 2011 performance. I overheard another patron say the length of the performance was perfect, and was just as enjoyable as any of the major productions in the area. Redwood City is very lucky to have a production of this quality in their midst.

What a deliciously entertaining evening of fun!…read more Beautiful is a campy performance with a great cast of drag, sex and a whole lot of great music! The basis is that the cast creates their own private "Garden of Eden" in hopes of making a world perfect for themselves. But the shadowy villians, who are more comical than creepy, plan on ruining this place of perfection. I loved this show because it was just so off. I'm used to ball gowns and suits, proper poise and manners. Instead, with this show, you get full out profanity, corests, revealing legs, and a great time. The cast was amazing, and very personable. The actualy seating is wonderful. Comfy couches and beds, pillows draped on the floor. It's an extremely intimate setting. And if you're lucky enough (like I was) you'll be included in the finale audience participation and drafted into the Swan's Army. Seriously, check it out while you can. You'll be disappointed if you miss this one!

This was my first time at this particular stage company, and we saw "Waiting for Godot!"…read more Wow- the voices of both the two main characters were simply marvelous!! I have never heard of this play before, yet my dad and brother knew it very well within the psychologically realm. Lol, As I listened to the play, there were a number of quotes I had actually heard when I was studying different theories within existentialism so it brought me back to my old college days! Lol A very small cast, but so well acted, especially the amazing rant that the character, lucky does was almost like a wrap! I honestly wish I had tape recorded or at least the audio of that because he said so many amazing quotes and Mantras of life. I wish I could've repeated any of them! My brain could not process everything so quickly but goodness well played!! The seats were a bit rickety, but they were still comfortable, and the play itself was not too cold luckily for me since I'm always freezing! Lol I also had a jacket handy, just in case. It was a cold overcast day, and the wind picked up, but everything inside the theater was pleasant. I wouldn't mind coming back and seeing a couple other plays especially the musical number ! This particular was about 2 1/2 hours long so at the last 30 minutes of the play, sadly my dad's phone rang since we were late for our dinner reservation! Lol, so I wish we knew how long the play was going to be before we made dinner plans. Lol.

Super amateur and uncomfortable…read more Dropped by here on a lark because I saw a sign advertising their production of "Cabaret" at a local restaurant and I've been meaning to see the Robert Altman film. 95% of the audience were Boomers who are probably bored out of their minds and desperate for any diversion from waiting for the sweet release of death. The other 5% were presumably friends of the cast. Basically all the actors were failure-to-launch white guys in their 30s, along with a few plus-sized Hispanic and Asian actresses. One actress was an attractive white girl, which confused me so badly that I assume she must have been somehow blackmailed into being part of the play. Nobody seemed to be having any fun, the laughter felt forced, the costumes and make-up were garish, and the playbill lacked any context for the story. I feel vaguely like I was rubbernecking the end of Western civilization, where young whites (who are a minority of young Americans) put on a half-hearted charade for their grandparents to try and maintain the illusion that the world they lived in still exists. As the Boomers pass away over the next decade, I expect all these local theater companies to shut down. The aforementioned attractive white girl and an acrobatic gay white guy seemed to actually be trying, which I appreciated, but their efforts weren't enough to salvage the play from all the others phoning it in. I'm glad I walked out a half-hour in. I wish I could get my money back. This may have permanently put me off from live theater lol.

We attended the opening-night performance of "the Da Vinci Code" at the Lucie Stern Theater. The…read moreevening ended with refreshments & celebratory toasts with Palo Alto Players cast & crew. Twenty years after the film release (& longer, still, since the controversial novel was published), the fast-paced stage adaptation did justice to the thought-provoking original story. Intimate theater with high production value; raw talent; & reasonably-priced tickets -- all the best parts of community theater. We had an amazing time!

Amazing plays locally in Palo Alto Ca. Affordable, exciting, amazing cast, and very relaxing…read moreevening out.

I say support local theater...no matter how challenging it may be to experience…read more So I was watching this episode of "That Girl" on DVD where struggling bouffant-challenged actress Ann Marie is in an experimental play called "A Bunch of Artichokes". She makes her Brylcreem-saturated boyfriend Donald come see her in it, which of course, forces him to confess he hated it. Donald was not an open-minded fellow, at least artistically, and well, I have to admit I may not be either... First, it's good to know theater is alive and kicking in all sorts of venues throughout the city. I like the big shows at the Orpheum, and I like the small ones like the spartan production I saw of Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins" performed by the Custom Made Theater Company. I even braved crossing 6th Street to see that one. So I came to this one with an open mind....really.... The Crowded Fire Theater Company is performing a ninety-minute play by Charles Mee called "Gone" at the SF Playhouse up on Sutter through March 2nd. I saw it last night, and from what I could tell, it was a meditation on personal loss using a variety of formats (song, monologues, performance art, etc.) and snatches of works from all sorts of writers to induce discussions about grieving. It follows an omnibus format without providing any single narrative thread. That may be the rub. Some people respond viscerally to such treatments. Others, like me, get easily confused despite moments of honest profundity. There are four in the cast, all quite talented (though the women definitely seem much more alive than the men), and the set is made up of a sandbox filled with dirt, lots of movable doors, a couple of lamps, and things to tape on the wall. The props are used in an expressionistic manner, and the actors alternate moments of whimsy with scenes of poignancy. The bits are so brief and often confusing in nature, that the irony of the comments went over my head. At the same time, the emotional disconnectedness of Mr. Mee's piece is probably intentional since we are meant to react to the abyss into which each character is afraid to fall. Of the cast, Mollena Williams is the standout since she conveys the currents of gravitas and humor much more fluently than the others. Constantly flouncing around in her gauzy dress, Marilee Talkington bears such a striking resemblance to Molly Shannon that I was afraid she was going to hurl herself through a wall. The energy of this production is rewarding even if the play itself is rather questionable. Here's a promo video for the production... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2UY_EG2ea4

I went to see CFT's performance of "Gone," by Charles Mee. I still have Montgomery Gentry in my…read morehead and the smell of fresh dirt in my short-term memory... I really liked the creative use of lamps and the set design, and enjoyed watching the cast puttering around when it wasn't their turn to speak. I also enjoyed being able to visit with the cast after the show and learn more about how they put the production together. I didn't mind the seemingly random tributes to grief and loss. In fact, it was refreshing to see others experiencing it instead of doing so myself (holla, 2007). Some of the moments were so raw, honest, and touching that I found myself nodding and saying "mmm hmm" to myself. The insomniac character simultaneously bugged and bored me, but I liked that actor in other roles and thought the cast as a whole was very talented. I recommend this show to those folks that appreciate subtle, lyrical, poignancy and don't require a linear plot.

After participating in several theater and art organizations in the bay are, both children/youth…read moreand professional, we found PYT to be very refreshing. People are nice, accessible, and really committed to the mission of the organization to help every child grow in confidence. From start to finish, the process is well organized and coordinated. They may sure every child, even those with small roles, get a chance to shine on stage. Well done, highly recommended.

Very underwhelming summer camp experience. Our 7-year-old daughter attended the two-week summer…read moreprogram and ended up with only seven lines and about 30 words in the entire play. I completely understand that not every child can have a leading role, but giving any child of this age such a marginal role during a two-week camp does not seem acceptable to me. In fact, she came home crying after the second day and said that this amount of text she could memorize in less than a day. What made me particularly sad and disappointed as a parent was not even the wasted money, but the missed growth opportunity. We use the summer break to expose our daughter to new activities and interests outside the classroom so she gets outside her comfort zone and can discover what she enjoys. From that perspective, these two weeks felt like a waste of time and potential.

The Pear has gone through a lot of change past few years, needless to say COVID was a tough time…read more They have a new artistic Director, the new season looks promising. The 2025 Annual production of Pear Slices (short original plays written by local playwrights) was fantastic. The upcoming season looks really interesting. The theater is just off of 101 / Shoreline, plenty of free parking. Thepear.org

It's incredible how much things can change. I used to love this theater -- in fact, I gave it a…read more5-star review six years ago. Unfortunately, my recent experience was a real disappointment. While the actors were talented and delivered strong performances, they didn't seem well-matched to the roles they were cast in, which made it harder to connect with the story. More importantly, I came to see a Shakespeare play, but was disheartened by the insertion of modern political messaging that felt out of place and unnecessarily polarizing. Sadly, this no longer feels like the theater I once enjoyed. I won't be returning.

The new theater is mostly great! There is a lot more legroom and the seats don't feel as if we're…read moregoing to be swallowed up and sitting on the floor if they collapse. My only complaint is that there aren't enough bathrooms for the number of people the theater holds. The building used to be open during events so that guests could use the bathrooms for the rest of the building, but the building was locked and the line for the bathroom wrapped around the lobby. The line was still long when the play started. At intermission, the line again wrapped around the lobby. Not everyone got a chance to use the bathroom in the short intermission.

Lucie Stern Theater is beautiful and amazing…read more This Spanish Mediterranean-style theater is home to the City of Palo Alto's Recreation Department as well as a Community Theatre and Children's Theatre. There's a beautiful garden with various bench for you to sit while waiting the show begins. Parking is free near the theater. The theater is clean and well maintained. I highly recommend this venue.